Wildland Firefighting

As of a week ago, I am now a certified, red-carded wildland firefighter! I had a week of classes, one field day, and then a prescribed, 5-acre fire.

I had been warned that wildland firefighting is a vicious circle of not being able to wait for a fire to go out on, and then the whole time you're out there, thinking, "Why am I doing this? This sucks. I'm never doing this again." Then, after a few days, the bruises blisters and muscles healing, you can't wait to do it again.


This was all very true for me. During the fire, I was definitely thinking, "Why am I out here doing this??" They had us holding the line that would be in the "head" of the fire (if it weren't prescribed) for an hour, inhaling more smoke than I thought humanly possible to inhale and still be alive. We would have to drop to the ground (one time I dropped into a cactus), and dig a little hole in the dirt to put our noses in for some "fresh" air when it got even worse... And as I worked on mop-up for six hours on a crazy steep slope, I was honestly wondering why people find wildland firefighting fun. I left Calwood thinking that I would go out on a line crew in our district, because I feel a duty to do so since I'm trained and able, and I would work hard on that crew.... but I'm not going to be one of those people actively looking for crew positions on other people's fires, unless they were desperately shorthanded.


Perhaps one of the reason those "top dogs" love firefighting so much is because they get the excitement of being involved with the initial attack, and then get to sit back and take a nap while the crews mop up. Ha!
 

We had a great fire, though. We did 5 acres, and they said it was the hottest fire in Calwood history.  We had RH's around 13, and winds gusting up to 25-35 mph, and temps close to 80 - great conditions for extreme fire behaviour. We had three slop-overs (where the fire crosses the control line), one of good size, giving us actual suppression experience. We even had several fire whirls at one point. (A tornado made of fire.) I told my crew boss, "Wow! That's spectacular! I feel like we should be clapping!" And he said, "No, we don't clap at firewhirls... if there were any more vegetation on the ground between us and the whirl, we'd be RUNNING!"

 
When we first got into the head of the fire to hold the line, watching the green for spot fires, a group torch of three trees when up right behind me, 30 feet away. The smoke was so thick, I couldn't see the person next to me who was 10 feet away, and wasn't sure whether or not we were supposed to bail. I started moving in until I could see my crew boss, and he was relaxed as could be, so I knew, "Ok - don't panic." I would have had no idea that we could "safely" be so close to a group torch like that. That was one of those things I felt so lucky to get to experience at Calwood, and not have to experience for the first time on a real fire. It also seemed crazy to me that you could have fire in the crowns of three trees like that, but not have it turn into a crown fire, when all the trees were so close together. It was also nice to know that a torched out tree doesn't fall over. That was my initial concern. Now I know better. Once we started burning our second section, and had similar fire behavior, it wasn't scary like it was the first time. (Like I said, I felt like I should be clapping.)
 

I came home from Calwood thinking I was glad I went, and glad I had an experience and stories to tell. But, I was thinking wildfire is not for me. Now 10 days have gone by, and I am looking forward to going back out. I think about it all the time. What an adventure!